Family Tree UK

Learn how to trace your family tree! Every issue is packed with: family history research advice hands-on learning experiences to help you become an ancestor super-sleuth & step-by-step guides to show you the path to tracing the past. From vintage documents to the latest in DNA, we’re here to help you discover more! Get the latest in genealogy news, software, books, archives and expert answers. Plus enjoy those reader stories that remind what it means to trace your family story. Research & remember your roots with Family Tree!

Getting it right! Every genealogist’s (impossible?) dream…

MORE FROM US…

RAF Museum London awarded for autism-friendly service • The RAF Museum London has achieved a national charity award in recognition of its work to provide an autism-friendly environment and inclusive customer service for autistic people

Will £800+K 17th century explorer journal be saved for the nation? • Culture Minister Baroness Twycross has placed an export bar on a manuscript journal detailing Captain John Narbrough’s expedition (1669-1671) to Spanish America and the Pacific in an effort to protect a key piece of the nation’s history

Test your knowledge with the Findmypast app

New display: exploring Jane Austen’s brothers & their naval connections at the National Maritime Museum • Manuscripts relating to the brothers of Jane Austen are on display in Jane Austen and the Royal Navy for the first time to commemorate the 250th anniversary of her birth

Rare chance to see Jane Austen’s will in The National Archives’ Love Letters exhibition

DNA Club news • DNA Club news reporter Karen Evans shares news from the genealogy scene

NextGEN call for presentations • The Society of Genealogists and Family History Federation are arranging an online conference on 14 November 2026. They seek submissions from those aged 16-35 on that date to present…

POVERTY, ILLEGITIMACY AND LIES • This month, Family Tree Academy tutor David Annal looks at the struggles our Victorian urban working class ancestors endured, and shows how these challenges could often lead people to be less than honest in their dealings with authority

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Reclaiming my GERMAN ROOTS • ‘I’d applied in April 2023 to gain my German naturalisation – to become a German citizen,’ explains Erica Worth, editor of Pianist magazine. This is an interview with Erica about her family’s history, and her process to obtain German citizenship – a right of all those whose families had to flee Nazi persecution during the Second World War.

SURPRISE IN STORE • Which line next, Tonge or Grindle? Gill Shaw tosses a coin and starts to meander down the path of her ‘accidental ancestor’, William Grindle the stonemason.

Dear Paul • This month, Paul Chiddicks finds that all human life is to be found in the census returns, as well as bringing us his usual selection of weird and wonderful snippets from the genealogical records

Transcription Corner

Revisiting RESEARCH • Professional genealogist Chris Paton has written countless family history books, lectured worldwide, and has been researching his family tree for decades. Here he invites us to revisit our research – to shine a new light on our findings. Discover the numerous benefits of reviewing your previous family history research…

Queen Catherine Court, Ratcliff an East London slum • Genealogist Patricia Sears presents a fascinating case study of life in an East London court in the 19th century, and details the appalling conditions in which its residents lived

Approach to the research

THE ROMANOVS reform and revolution • Steve Roberts gives us a history of the Russian Romanov dynasty, whose time in power was marked by turbulence, reform...